The Witcher 2 - CDP Conference Videos

November 26th, 2010, 16:20

In these videos you will see the game in action. The first video shows Geralt escaping a prison using two different methods. Geralt can sneak his way out of the prison. The other way, as the host said, "He's butchering his way through the level."

In the second video, you will see the new locations in The Witcher as well as new enemies and a boss. I was very impressed with what I saw here.

The first video is over 13 minutes long and the second one ends after 7 minutes.

These videos contain massive spoilers. They are playing the actual game to show the new features in The Witcher 2. You will see a boss fight, a little of the storyline as well as some of the characters you will meet and how to finish one quest two different ways.

If you do not mind spoilers then watch the videos. It will show you exactly what kind of game you are going to get. If you don't want to know, please don't watch them. It will only ruin it for you.

For those of you who don't want to watch the spoilers I wrote down a few notes on the new features:

* Not only can you sneak or fight your way through a level you can also take different paths. In the video shown the two players went two different ways to complete the quest.

*Fist fighting is more dynamic. You can also choose to fist fight certain opponents for a non-lethal way of dispatching them.

*Many new inventory slots. There are slots for gloves, legs, head, body and a few others that I couldn't tell what they were for.

*You can customize items you find (didn't explain how other than the runes for the sword).

*Many new options to help you sneak like dousing torches, using non-lethal takedowns, improvements to the cat potion which allows you to see in the dark and see through walls(also you can see through NPCs which shows you their veins).

*The most interesting improvement is that if you choose the more difficult way to complete a quest you will recieve more experience. In the example provided if you chose to sneak and not kill anyone to complete the quest you will recieve more experience than just killing everything in your path.

*New uses for the medallion. It can now highlight interesting objects in the game. In the video the medallion highlighted pools of water because stepping in them would create noise which could attract the attention of the guards.

*The points that were stressed by the host is both non-linearity and choice and consequence. They were a few C&C shown in the videos.

*You might see different parts of the story and meet different people depending on how you treat people, how you complete quests and whom you meet first. For example: They played two games on the same level using different choices from earlier in the game. You met two entirely different people to help you complete the quest.

*No loading areas.

*The new engine is amazing. The landscapes were breathtaking as was the battlefield.

*In the quest they previewed they showed us two different way to pass it, but there are actually four ways you could have completed that quest.

*Huge epic battles with hundreds of characters on the screen on top of hundreds of flaming arrows being shot at you.

Wanted to avoid spoilers so I just breezed through the second video to see the locations and it looks great. I'm liking what I read in your news bit too. This will be my most anticipated game for 2011. If Dead State somes out in 2011 then I might have to rethink that claim but since it has no release date yet I'll go with W2.

I think I covered pretty much everything that was shown so you're not missing out on anything other than the visuals which are amazing.

I love the fact that they now reward you for sneaking. I am not normally a "sneaking" kind of gamer, but if the experience expresses the difficulty in doing it then I'll try it out. I never did like the fact that if I took the silent approach I was penalized by not getting all those delicious experience points by taking out the enemies. Now it seems like it will be worth it

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
I think I covered pretty much everything that was shown so you're not missing out on anything other than the visuals which are amazing.

I love the fact that they now reward you for sneaking. I am not normally a "sneaking" kind of gamer, but if the experience expresses the difficulty in doing it then I'll try it out. I never did like the fact that if I took the silent approach I was penalized by not getting all those delicious experience points by taking out the enemies. Now it seems like it will be worth it

This is a huge plus. As I have stated a few times not a big fan of pre-defined protagonists. But the number of options, outside of that, seem staggering for a game. I have been interested in W2 since I started following it. This is really sounding like it will be an awesome game, my RP hangups not withstanding.

Plus sneaking … Rogues are my favorite class/type to play in RPG games. So glad I just ordered a new PC last week - top of the line gaming rig due on 12.7 so very excited

We saw these videos being demoed before I believe. The Prison part at least, the part with the ghost soldiers was new to me.

I'm very impressed so far. I like that they put in actual stealth gameplay and jumping. The more ways you get to travel across the terrain, the more dynamic your game should be. The fact that you get more experience for getting through a location in a stealthy way is just awesome.

The engine looks just awesome. No loading times and some awe-inspiring graphics. It's a huge upgrade from the Aurora engine used in the last game. This is the way to go for RPGs. Environments without loading times can seriously enhance the immersion.

They need to put some work into the facial animations though. I've never seen anything so un-lifelike.

Another thing that troubles me is the combat. I know the game is still in development (CDP has tressed that a lot of times), but to me it seems like they're way too far into the development cycle of the game to such poor combat. I mean, it's one of the core aspects of the entire thing.